The baseball team renewed the Silver Glove Series Tuesday night when they welcomed cross-town rival Rice University to Darryl & Lori Schroeder Park.
Junior right-hander Marshall Kasowski took the mound for the Cougars looking to improve upon his 2-1 record and 2.70 ERA. The Owls sent their sophomore right-hander Willy Amador to the mound with his sights set on shutting the Cougar offense down.
Kasowski was rattled early when the Owls managed four runs off of him in the first two innings. Rice was too much for Kasowski on this night and manager Todd Whitting replaced his starter in the fourth inning with freshman Trey Cumbie. The junior surrendered nine hits and four runs in just 3.1 innings pitched.
Receiving production from their eight and nine hitters, Connor Wong and Jose Reyes both tallied an RBI in the bottom of the second inning to cut the early Rice lead to 4-2.
The Owls pushed their lead to 5-2 in the fifth inning when third baseman Dane Myers drove in teammate Ryan Chandler with a soft-hit single. The Cougars answered with a shallow single of their own in the bottom half of the fifth when freshman Joe Davis drove in Wong.
Down 5-3 heading into the late innings, the Cougars had their work cut out for them.
Corey Julks came through in the bottom half of the seventh when he hit an RBI single that scored Wong yet again, making the score 5-4. Later in the inning, Cougar hitters loaded the bases only to be held scoreless after Jacob Campbell grounded into what turned out to be a controversial double play.
Cumbie was outstanding in relief of Kasowski. Replaced in the ninth inning, Cumbie managed to scrap together 4.2 innings of work in which he surrendered just four hits and two unearned runs.
Things started to heat up in the bottom of the ninth when coach Whitting was ejected for arguing home plate umpire Ken Langford’s seemingly inconsistent strike zone. The team was able to load the bases but were unable to plate any runs and fell to the Owls 7-4.
Despite dropping the first game of the Silver Glove Series, the Cougars can even the series May 10th when they travel across town to Rice’s Reckling Park.
The Cougars welcome the George Washington University Colonials to Schroeder Park for a three-game series starting Thursday. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
